Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ Recast As Grim Fairy Tale: Jeremy Gerard

Dima Bawab, William Nadylam, Thomas Doliz and Abdou Ouologuem in "A Magic Flute" at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College in New York, presented by the Lincoln Center Festival. Photographer: Stephanie Berger/Lincoln Center Festival via Bloomberg

July 7 (Bloomberg) -- There are more reeds, of the bamboo
variety, than flutes and also precious little magic in Peter
Brook’s fantasy-parched “A Magic Flute.”

The production, trimmed down to 90 minutes, is the opening
presentation of the Lincoln Center Festival in New York

Brook, who once put Shakespeare on trapeze and introduced
Western audiences to “The Mahabharata,” conjures only a
smidgen of Mozart’s playfulness.

More evident is the wistfulness of age in this spartan
production. Brook, 86, recently retired as head of the Theatre
des Bouffes du Nord, his Paris base since 1974.

He’s best known locally for dropping Bizet’s doomed gypsy
into a sand pit on the stage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater, and
allowing “La Tragedie de Carmen” to unfold as a bleak noirish
tale of lust, violence and fate.

This “Flute” is similarly spare. No orchestra, just an
onstage piano, and nine actors in Helene Patarot’s modest
costumes (no feathers for Papageno, that’s for sure) flitting
about the bamboo rod pick-up-sticks piercing the stage.

Paring down layers heightened Carmen’s tragedy. It seems
misguided for a tale as taken with its non-essentials -- a love-starved bird catcher, a wily serpent -- as it is with the
larger, darker mystery of Zoroaster and the desperate
vengefulness of the Queen of the Night. Mozart here is nearly
drained of fun and the comedy is mannered, while the deeper
territories go unexplored.

Thomas Dolie and Dima Bawab are adorable in the surefire
comic roles of Papageno and Papagena (there are alternating
casts for the two-week run). Malia Bendi-Merad negotiated the
Queen of the Night’s treacherous aria with confident restraint.

Indeed, the entire production was marked by a lack of
flashiness, though Adrian Strooper made a powerful impression as
the inflamed prince, Tamino. The thrill is undersold in “A
Magic Flute,” as are stronger motifs and motivations. I left
hungry.